The moment that Holly heard a loud boom, she turned to face the direction that it was coming from, her hand falling to her sword's hilt. She was being cautious, especially after the danger that they had just faced by the dragon - for all she knew, it could have been another threat that was on it's way. She gripped Shadowbane as the gigantic man stepped from the crater that he had created with his meteor-like display from the clouds, however she lessened her grip on her sword as she came to realise who he was. Holly had read about Ajax Thera in the past, had heard stories of the man. He was intimidating, but not so much so that it caused Holly to falter. If anything, she knew that he wasn't a threat, and as he made his way over to her, she dropped her grip on Shadowbane entirely to show that she, too, was not a threat. That didn't mean she liked him at all, there was certainly an element of danger as Ajax approached.

Though she was the one to be questioned by Ajax, Grasidia (who had decided to approach) took over the answering of Ajax's question. Holly could not help but take a glance at the other S-Class in a little frustration - did Grasidia not think she could handle this? Perhaps it was for the better, because already Ajax was starting to get a bit on her nerves just with his attitude and way of words. The tension hit an all-time high when Ajax asked Holly to take off her helmet. Had Grasidia not placed herself between Ajax and Holly, the latter would have said some very sharp words in response to his request, but even then it took some effort for the armoured girl not to speak any words. It seemed immediately apparent that the situation was due to escalate.

As Ajax brought his hand toward his sword, Holly did the same with Shadowbane, gripping the hilt with the intention to pull if Ajax did the same. She had no doubt in her mind that Ajax would win by use of his magic, but if he did wish to draw with the intent to attack, Holly was not going to go down without a fight of her own. As a matter of fact, she disregarded the fact that Grasidia had put her arm out in front of her, and instead Holly moved slightly to the side to try and get the arm out from between them. Holly didn't want Grasidia protecting her. Even as Ajax backed off at Grasidia's words, Holly kept her hand on her sword for security for a few more moments before letting go as Ajax began to speak.

Ajax announcing himself as a dragon slayer helped Holly to understand Ajax's apparent suspicion and the questions he had been asking before. If he was a dragon slayer, he most likely could tell that what they had slain was not a dragon, and perhaps suspected that they were the ones that had summoned it in the first place. Or perhaps Holly was overthinking things. A flash of light surprised Holly just as it did Grasidia and Ajax, but she realised it was a man with a camera. Holly took momentary pleasure in watching the Rune Knights dragging him away as revenge for surprising her, and turned her head back to Ajax so that she could watch him departing. She still didn't like him. Something was definitely off about him.

"I agree," Holly quietly replied to Grasidia, before adding on, "But only Torys. Let the rest of the Guild recover and celebrate." The Guild didn't need to know the specifics of the interaction that the pair of S-Class had just had with Ajax, nor the suspicious thoughts that the pair were most likely sharing. Holly turned to look over at Leon as he questioned what they were going to do now, and then made her way over toward him. "Now, we recuperate, and then we stand tall for the crowd. We let them know who it was that fought the dragon."

With that, she knew her duty. Holly walked her way back over to the dragon, which had about a third left to disintegrate; a still a large amount due to how big the dragon was. With a little momentum applied to herself, she leapt onto the top of the dragon's head from in front of it, for the crowd to see. Holly landed gracefully with a one-eighty spin, swiftly drawing Shadowbane and planting the tip on the dragon's head, placing her hands atop the hilt and standing there like a statue for everyone to see - including the photographers. "The dragon is defeated, and the day is won!" Holly announced loudly. "Fenixtear has fought to help you all, just as we will help anyone!"

---

With the dragon finished off and everyone starting to wind down, some dropped to the ground in exhaustion and others were worrying about everyone else's injuries. Felix's condition is currently somewhat stable, so the only person of worry seems to be Gwendolyn.

And maybe the shouting Lavinia. What if she loses her breath and passes out from all that?

Before Luke went to go look for Gwendolyn, Marduk found her. She looked fine from Luke's point of view, but something must've caused her to go unconscious. Luke tilted his head momentarily in thought, but gave up that avenue relatively quickly. He's no doctor after all. Besides, Lavinia is caring for her in her special way.

Luke became still and closed his eyes, almost giving the appearance of a man who fell asleep while standing up. The world around him was at peace, which of course means something had to disturb him before he delved inside his consciousness.

An earth-shattering sound hit the ground, revealing an interesting man with an air of suffocating power around his body. Luke's eyes widened as his hand slipped behind him reaching for something that wasn't there with an eerie grin on his face. He immediately corrected that into a smile. At least it wasn't him that contributed to the rising tension. Luke turned away from that man's confrontation with the two top members of his guild.

The moment he appeared... Why did my hand do that? Almost like it was muscle memory from seeing his visage.

The atmosphere could've set a match ablaze with how much heat and pressure was being generated. A thought wormed its way into the amnesiac's brain. If it did turn into a brawl, what should he do? It was strange that the idea of a fight with that powerful mage didn't bother him in the slightest. Even if he would lose ten out of ten times, he just feels that he could care less about the idea of victory or loss.

Maybe.

What if I just let those familiar movements guide me...? A remnant of what was left behind. A ghost of a thought seemed to superimpose itself over his memories, but it was far too hazy to even think of it as something more real than a dream or an illusion. All those thoughts vanished from his mind and seemed to disappear before sinking into his memory the moment the burning tension cooled.

Luke's erratic and abnormal behavior returned to its normal state with hopefully no one the wiser. Everyone is fine and away from danger including him. He ignored the thumping in his chest and just attributed it to the running adrenaline that hasn't yet settled from the monster fight. His eyes found one of the other guild mates seemingly off to the side away from the main group. Luke felt like wandering over to the person who's name is escaping him right now, but he turned his focus elsewhere.

"How is Felix?" he asked while walking towards Leon with a serene smile on his face. Holly metaphorically sounding the horn of victory slightly put him in a good mood.

---

The fleeting warmth of the hand on her shoulder, helping steady her, didn't last as long as Ria liked. It hadn't been until the cloak draped over her that the girl realized just how chilled she felt. The last time she felt this cold...Right. The water... Was she truly so tired that she spaced on the fact she'd just managed to convert the temperate rain into a sphere of frigid water? That was entirely possible. She was already tired going into the day.

Leon was helping Felix, and Marduk found Gwen. Marduk found Gwen unconscious, her brain corrected a few seconds too late. Her eyes widened and she moved to stand, but barely managed to sit back on her heels without shivering too badly. Instead, her hands gripped the edges of the cloak the older mage had placed on her and hugged it tightly around herself. It wasn't much, given that it was as soaked as her own clothes, but it was better than mostly bare arms. She wanted to stand up to go help Gwen, but she wasn't going to be doing her sister any good. Not being so cold her teeth chattered already. Besides, the unfortunate thing was there wasn't any damage to heal, and she wasn't entirely sure she could summon up the strength to heal anyone right at that moment.

The ground shook, pulling her attention toward their two strongest mages and some guy that had just punched a hole in the dissipating clouds overhead. Blinking helped clear her sight enough to realize...she really needed to warm up. Her gaze drifted over the others until she finally spotted where Asher had gotten off to.

Just gotta manage to stand up and go over there. Not too far, she promised herself. It took a bit of effort, and one hand had to leave the cloak to brace on her thigh to stand, but she managed. Small steps brought her slowly closer to the other mage. She finally stopped, desperately hugging Marduk's cloak around her as she fought to control the shivers shaking her body, just inside arm's reach but trying not to crowd him.

"Asher?" She paused and cleared her throat to try to speak louder than the drained whisper his name came out as. "Would you mind lending some body heat? I ended up chilling myself while I was trying to help Felix. I need some help warming up."

@TheHangedMan | @Sanguine Rose

---

Grabbing Gwen off Marduk, Lavinia quickly fled the scene and hid behind a chunk of smashed-up building. Shit shit shit shit shit!! A Wizard Saint was here, and there could only be one reason: the Magic Council had finally figured out Lavinia’s plans, and was sending one of its top personnel to eliminate her.

Squeezing the unconscious Gwen tight for comfort, she peeked out from behind her cover, sweating profusely. The Wizard Saint didn’t seem to have spotted her since he was approaching the S-Class mages instead… Oh no, they weren’t going to rat her out, were they? Surely they wouldn’t do something like that? Lavinia might have been evil, but it wasn’t like she’d been that nasty to them, right?

Then the Saint marched away, and she breathed a long sigh of relief. ”Fufufu… Stupid Magic Council goon didn’t even see me. I am stealthy as a shadow, slinking in the night beneath a new moon. Isn’t that right, Gwen?”

The unconscious Gwen didn’t reply, but Lavinia thought that she’d definitely agree if she could.

”Let’s get you fixed up. We can’t have you passing away before I get to torment you properly, can we?” She held up her grimoire, and a wave of blood poured out, coursing over Gwen and gathering around her until she was half-submerged in a shallow pool. The process might not wake her, but the Bathory spell would heal up any external injuries within a couple of minutes, leaving her healthy and refreshed once she did finally rouse. Lavinia used Carmilla to check her heartbeat and make sure it was steady, and then, without really thinking about it, gently patted her on the head.

The blood mage would have been happy to simply wait by Gwen’s side until she recovered, but alas, it was not to be. No sooner had she gotten started with the healing than she heard a start, and stood up to see Holly standing on the dragon’s head and hogging the spotlight.

What?! The cameras started flashing. Everyone was focused on Holly, on her fancy acrobatics and big brave declarations. But that couldn’t be right. Holly hadn’t killed the dragon, that had been Lavinia!

She stood up, flapping her arms and yelling. ”You dolts! I’m over here! I’m the one who took it down!”

None of the reporters seemed to hear her. They were too enthralled with the striking image of an armored figure standing tall astride a fallen monster’s head, regardless of the fact that said head was still full of Lavinia’s own bloody spears. No one was going to pay attention to some loud, bedraggled mage complaining from the sidelines, especially not when- let’s face it -her heavily berobed appearance made for a far less attractive figure than Holly’s tight-fitting armor.

So the blood mage shouted, and waved, and no one from the press so much as looked at her. After a minute she simply gave up and slumped down beside Gwen, her head in her hands.

”You saw it… right Gwen? You saw me kill it. D-didn’t even need the help of those stupid bigshots. Stupid stupid stupid.” It would have been so easy to just murder all those asshole photographers on the spot, but she couldn’t afford to risk anything like that with a Wizard Saint nearby. All she could do was sulk, and cry a little, and complain to someone who couldn’t even hear her.

Just when things calm down, they get tense again… That certainly seemed the case, for just as they all had reconvened, some new guy lands near their group. Asher’s eyes certainly catch the tension from the S Rankers. Whomever this guy was, he must be some big deal to get them riled up.

As Grasidia was conversing with the man, Asher found his hand resting near one of the bars strapped to his waist. He certainly hoped they would not be right back into another fight, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t be on guard for the worst case scenario. He scanned around, seeing both Rune Knights and civilians alike standing around them. If a fight does break out now, this will get ugly quick, his mouth twitching at the thought. But, with the man letting out a chuckle, the tension snaps. Asher finds himself letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

Suddenly, his gaze follows Holly, who leaped up on top of the dissolving dragon, a sight to behold as she stands tall and poses for the masses. All things considered, he had to give it to her for fully committing to the act. Judging from a good part of the crowd, they were eating it up as others started to take pictures of everyone. It was good to see such attitudes from the masses so soon after what happened.

A quiet calling of his name snapped him out of his gaze, turning his head and finding Astoria beside him. He blinked in surprise at her request, but as he got a better look at her shivering form tightly clinging to her wet cloak, he pushed it down as concern for her health came to him. Before he could say anything towards that, the sudden arrival of Cloven made him pause. As the younger boy made his offer to Astoria, Asher found himself giving the boy an apprehensive look with the tilt of his head. The strange boy was just as wet as Astoria. That wouldn’t do her any good in warming up any time soon, though it’s likely he didn’t think of that before making the offer. Though it was strange he wanted her to answer questions as part of the deal.

As such, Asher speaks up. “While a… kind gesture, I don’t believe in your current condition,” motioning towards his soaked clothing, “it would be better for her to get her body to warmth as soon as possible. In this case, please leave this to me. But first…” Putting his hands on the bottom of his wet and dirty shirt, Asher in a single quick motion, pulls it over his head, revealing his tone, muscled form beneath.



Laying his shirt down on a bit of debris to his side, Asher then closes his eyes as he draws a little bit of his magic. Using a fraction of the power usually done for this spell, Asher’s body takes on a faint glow as a small bit of heat wafts in the air just around his body. Satisfied, he opens his eyes and looks to Astoria. “It’s better for me to mitigate any resistance for transferring body heat to you. This should be sufficient enough.”

So there he was, laying on the ground, bleeding without even one of his guild mates acknowledging his presence. "Guess I'll die."

Then shit happened; an unfathomable presence had suddenly appeared without any warning. Zenith raised his head up to see what in the fresh hell it was and dear god he had only seen this man once before: the wizard saint Ajax There. This man was a living terror, a monster above all monsters and he was talking to Fenixtear's two S-Class mages. He could hear his heart pounding against his chest as he broke out into a cold sweat. The first instinct he felt before anything else was to run, to run as far as he could from this overwhelmingly strong entity.

God dammit, if he was just a little bit closer to hear the conversation! Zenith sighed and looked up at the sky. God dammit, he was completely useless after using Enkidu; the rebound felt like his body was trying to tear itself apart and he had absolutely no more Ethernano after his final attack that only split the dragon's head open just enough to help with the finishing blow. Speaking of which, was that thing even a real dragon? He's never killed a dragon before, but he was certain enough that when most things die they don't turn into blue sparkles of magic that float up to the sky.

Well, they'll just have to talk about it later. He could not exactly talk to others if he was laying on the ground like."Can I get a little help here? I'm not exactly the biggest fan of bleeding out." He called out to whoever in his guild would listen or able bodied to help heal his lacerations.

---

Gwen soberly awakened with her distressed patched up by Lavinia, the fight was over too. Her bloody friend was shooting her the story that she killed the demonic dragon, at least when she was halfway awake. "How come I felt you violated me when I was unconcious? Thanks anyway, you're gonna have to take responsibility from now on."

That's the Gwen we all know...

Much to her sarcastic remarks and conspiracy about Lavinia's doing to her, she felt a twisted comfort. Grateful to her friend who patched her up without needing to express it with fluff. Gwen quickly picked up the social queues of the situation and the flashing of the cameras only proved her point. Fenixtear has received the recognition it always wanted at this very moment, she smirked and couldn't care less at this point yet she was proud.

"Wanna torment some people, Lavi? I can feel some strangers picking on my sister. Follow me." @Anza@Renny@Spectral@Sanguine Rose

---

Ria's brows rose upon hearing Cloven's voice behind her. She turned, hugging the cloak tighter when the movement kicked it up away from her bare legs. Perhaps next time she would keep this little incident in mind and control what she chilled better. It was a snap moment judgement call that she hadn't exactly thought through to try to help save the silly boy's brain. As long as Leon could heal up the other injuries. But none of that had to do with the present predicament of the dark robed mage offering to warm her in exchange for answers to questions.

"Um..." was all she got out before Asher spoke up.

She glanced at Asher for a moment while he spoke before turning back to Cloven. How do I let him down gently? An apologetic smile twitched onto her face until she could hold it without it trembling in her chill. "Cloven, that's a very nice offer. Like Asher said, I do need to warm quickly so I can get back to helping the others. I can't exactly cast properly while cold." Her smile warmed up a little more.

"But if you have questions for me, we can certainly talk once we're done helping with the clean up here and are back at the guild." The fact he wanted to charge his warmth for questions was intriguing after all. It made her wonder what he wanted to ask. If they were questions she had answers for. Hopefully she remembered this, in case he dropped it as soon as they left; she would make it a point to start the question and answer session.

She turned back to Asher, and the smile vanished for a brief second. Her eyes widened and brows rose to see the older mage had removed his shirt and had taken on the slightest glow. That quite flash of surprise vanished under an appreciative smile. "Short of having a proper insulating coverage - " and for me to not be wearing wet clothes too "this will certainly have to suffice."

Ria stepped forward and pressed her body against Asher's. Her arms tucked up to unintentionally create a partial barrier between her chest and his torso, but more to help funnel his heat into her core. It left her fists pressed up under her chin as she turned her cheek to rest against his shoulder.

Her gaze drifted over the others, passing over Lavinia sitting with Gwen - who thankfully was awake again. She'd have to check on how her sister was doing after she was warm and so long as everything else was being cared for. They could still prove useful in rescue and clean up efforts and that kind of took precedence over mental well being.

The smile on her face faded when she saw Zenith was still on the ground and no one had helped him yet. Why hadn't...? Her gaze snapped back over to Lavinia. "Lavinia, sweetie?" She managed to call out loud enough for her voice to carry. The heat radiating from Asher was already helping. "Can you please help Zenith?" She motioned with a shift of her elbow. "He could use some healing and I'm not quite able to help him right now."

”What?!” Lavinia stared at Gwen in shock, and then turned bright red as she stared speaking. ”I didn’t… Well, I mean, I kind of… But not in a… You know…” She covered her face with her hands, her words dissolving into an unintelligible stream of gibberish.

”Uhhh, torment! Yes!” she finally sputtered out. ”Let’s, let’s go and torment some fools! Nobody picks on Ria except me!” Trying to recover her senses, she leaped to her feet and rushed towards Astoria and Asher. ”Let her go, you damn oaf! Ria, tell him I’m your favorite pillow!”

And then Ria turned to her, and things got even worse, because Gwen had told her to do one thing and now Ria was telling her to do another and also Ria was pressing herself against a man who was mostly naked and also Gwen maybe sort of thought Lavinia had done something she definitely hadn’t and what would Ria think if she found out and also Zenith might sort of be dying but not really and Holly was still hogging the spotlight and oh craaaaaaap what do I do what do I doooo?!

She froze in place for a moment, her mouth hanging open without making any sound, her cheeks still flushed a deep crimson. And then her brain, in the throes of a panic attack, came to a snap decision.

”Die, freak!” She lunged forwards and kicked Asher from behind, right between the legs. And then immediately whipped around and charged off towards Zenith. ”Zenny don’t you dare bleed out or I’m going to kill yoooooooouuuu!!!”

It seemed that Fenixtear had managed to break their blood mage.

---

"Only Torys," she agreed with Holly. While the armored woman went back towards the dragon's corpse to pose and spread awareness of the Fenixtear name, Grasidia walked back towards Marduk and the rest of the guild. Before Marduk had even suggested it aloud the Rune Knights had already begun to disperse, with one regiment following the Wizard Saint back to the Magic Council headquarters building and the rest all spreading out to begin searching the rubble for survivors (and bodies). This meant nobody was stopping the growing crowd of civilians from approaching the members of Fenixtear and several began to step forward, including the journalist from earlier. While Grasidia approached a nearby destroyed building, preparing to clear the rubble and search for any humans, she was followed by several from the crowd that began to ask questions. "Your guild is called Fenixtear?" "What's your name?" "Who are you?" "How did you kill the dragon?" "Where is your guild from?" "Is the old man the guildmaster?"

The pestering very quickly worked Grasidia's nerves and it was only a matter of time before she would snap at the humans following her. I'm covered in blood how are they not repulsed enough to stay away? she wondered as her plants began to lift and turn the rubble of the building in front of her in her search for victims of the dragon attack. "Hey lady! At least tell us who you are." And that was the end of her tolerance. Grasidia turned around to face the humans. "Leave me be!" she commanded, shocking the small crowd and frightening them with her intensity. This did the trick as they remained silent and began to walk away to go bother other members of her guild, though everyone seemed to have at least a few people already bothering them. Holly surely had the largest of the gatherings but the journalist from before had actually approached Marduk, likely assuming that he was the master due to his age and barking orders.

But at least they finally left Grasidia alone. Stupid humans, should've let the dragon tear this place down, she thought to herself as she finished clearing the rubble before her. There were no bodies or survivors in this one, but with her curse she was able to search very quickly. The roots of her plants quickly spread out underneath the city, poking out of the ground where there was destruction and quickly searching the areas. She was able to remotely find many survivors, and even more unlucky humans, to assist the Rune Knights in their rescue operations. While her plants continued to do all the work across the city she began to walk back towards where the bulk of her guild was gathered. She quickly stopped when she saw how many humans had surrounded them. Not wishing to deal with the barrage of annoyances again she turned away and took a seat on the ground against a large boulder of debris.

I'm probably going to have to bring everyone back to the guild, she continued thinking to herself. Though I suppose there's no urgency now and they can just take the train back. I don't need to wait for them. She looked down at her bloody palms, then up her bloody arms. It's been a long time since I've felt demon blood. What a strange Etherious this was. What is our creator doing with something like that? Why would he attack the Magic Council in this way? Surely if he wanted to destroy it he would've sent someone else, and multiple Etherious. She looked back up at the disappearing dragon, which was mostly gone at this point. Did he make it look like a dragon on purpose? Surely he did. I just can't understand to what end he is heading towards. Is it time I went home? No, he would possibly have me killed... And I can't tell Torys about all this or she might get me killed too... I suppose the best course of action would be to look into this myself...

---

'Gee...I hope Luke is also fine.' Gwen expressed worrisome concern over her younger but older sibling. Approaching her younger sibling, Astoria, she's disgusted at the sight she saw; a shirtless man and an Edgelord, Gwen rolled her eyes and glared at them.

For a while she's relieved that her reverse psychology on Lavinia worked — because she ain't having any of her nonsense. Gwen wanted to make sure that her guild members are safe, especially her siblings. They are much more valuable compared to her vendetta against demons — a sore subject for the day that she's embarrassed to talk about. Based on the situation that Gwen further observed, the guild has gained popularity too quick as civilians who are now fans were bothering Grasidia and other members.

A man patted her back and asked who she was and asked random questions. To her disinterest, Gwen dismissed the person with her short introduction, she's Gwen Gospel; an Ice Devil Slayer, has a big appetite and hates clothes. A couple more random strangers caught the subject about hating clothes. Gwen retorted with dismissal; "It's simple, we were born naked, clothes are mere accessories that humanity made up."

They were tempted to have her strip but Gwen didn't really mind, she could tell on how their eyes were lustfully looking at her body. Surprisingly, Gwen wasn't bothered by the slightest and gave them a final dismissal. "I work hard and I got the most mission count in the guild. If you guys have job offers, I'd be willing to attend to it.

Then they asked what about the others. "Fenixtear is my family, share some to them...the only reason I'm taking up more quests than them is because I wanted that shorty Guild Master of ours to recognize my efforts and promote me as an S-Class." Gwen expressed her workaholic side.

One of them told Gwen that her desires were selfish and she rebutted, when questioned about philosophy, Gwen energized. "Surpassing ones limits and going beyond and not setting for any less is my motto. I hate how this generation is complacent and engrossed with their businesses, too much routines; hardly any freedom and creativity. Now, what I admire about my guild is that we are free. It's like the guilds of the old... like Fairy Tail."

"In today's world of magic,you won't have indepency. People nowadays merely exist for the sake of existing. A goal without a plan is just a dream. That's all, if you wish to know and probably wanna join the guild. Here's my number."

Gwen seemed to have won the admiration of those strangers. They were intrigued with her outlook and though their lust was evident, she pacified it with conviction.

Cutting back to her main objective. She rushed to Ria's "aide", and chucked all her clothes against Cloven and Asher's faces.

"Touching my sister without my permission is fate worst than death, Ria, you have some explaining to do." She glared at them with a creepy and grotesque smile.

@Spectral | @Sanguine Rose | @Endeavor | @TheHangedMan

---

To Asher, everything up to now had gone quite well. He was able to fight alongside everyone against the dragon. Everyone made it out alive. Now they were all recovering, as others were taking the chance to inspire the citizens about their guild. He himself was taking this chance to help Astoria, his fellow guild mate, warm back up as she was shivering and wet. All in all, he felt good about everything.

Then there was a shout behind him before his vision went white as an intense pain, known and feared by all men, jolted through his very being. Whatever air was in his lungs immediately released as his muscles tighten on reflex, bringing Astoria even more tightly into his chest for a moment, before just as quickly his strength saps from him, slowly falling to his knees. His arms shortly to meet the ground, as he takes gasps of air, trying to keep as still as possible as his body jitters at the force brought to his jewels. “W-why…hnng!” was all he could muster out, as a second wave of pain washed over his body the next moment.

As he was still on the ground trying to wait out the soreness, he suddenly felt something lightweight smack across his face, obscuring his still blurry vision. With great focus, he lifts his head up in the direction of where whatever hit him came from. His vision slowly returning to focus, he finds that Astoria has been joined by her sister Gwen. Stripped it seems, yet again. Guess... that explains what hit my face...gods, this hurts…

“Was...asked… to help…uggh,” Asher breaths out, his mind currently still more focused on the pain, limiting how much he could properly explain.

"Always look on the bright side of life." He whistled a very copy righted tune. You lay bleeding on the ground and try to find a way to amuse yourself, it certainly isn't easy.

So the news media, townsfolk, and the like were beginning to swarm the area. Just about everyone else in the guild was getting an interview and meanwhile, he was laying on the road. Their first big mission to fall into the public eye and he looked like cattle left to be bleed on the floor. At least he finally got his guild mates' attention.

Zenith raised a bloody arm and waved at Ria's direction. "Thanks Ria." He said, stretching his words a bit too long. Was it just him or was the world becoming a little fuzzy and lopsided? It must've been the blood loss, no biggie. What was happening in front of him captured his attention more than his own wounds; Lavina's foot busted Asher's nuts with absolutely no mercy. Even Zenith felt an empathetic pain just from watching.

He just watched that Lavina's little freak out from where he was. What in the world was happening over there to make Little Miss World Domination so worked up? It was just Ria being held for warmth...by a half naked Asher... Oh. "Lavi, you're as subtle as a brick thrown against a window." Was all he said to her when she arrived after her mad dash towards him.

Marduk got about two words in, those being ‘Little Vin.’ At that point, the Little Vin in question decided she’d heard more than enough and flipped open her grimoire. Marduk would find his jaw suddenly locking in place, the blood within it rebelling against his muscles to prevent him from speaking further.

”Don’t test my patience, you flatulent muppet. I know what I have to do.” Ordinarily she’d have been happy to trade jabs with the old man, but right now she was too on edge to make conversation with a petty nemesis. Indeed, it was a mercy that Marduk never reached the part about ‘romantic rivals,’ or else his scrotum might have ended up being unceremoniously obliterated in similar fashion to Asher’s.

As it happened, Lavinia was thinking about that boy as she knelt down beside Zenith to heal him. Why did I… Why did I attack him, just then? She’d never felt any particular affection for Asher, but it wasn’t as if she disliked him, at least not beyond her general antipathy for all things good and proper. She had no reason to care about him sharing a post-battle hug with Ria, or making out with her, or whatever it was they’d been doing back there. Ria was nothing more than… than a trusted acquaintance, that was all. If she even still trusts me after today.

It was all Gwen’s fault. If that damned harlot hadn’t distracted Lavinia with her lies, she’d never have gotten so worked up in the first place. Scowling, she got to work on fixing up Zenith, making a mental note to think up an appropriate retaliation against the ice mage later. If she wants to be violated so badly, then I’ll… I’ll touch her butt when she’s least expecting it! HAH!

Using her grimoire, she sealed off the capillaries near Zenith’s wounds, preventing any further bleeding. Fresh blood washed over him in a gentle wave, slowly knitting together his flesh where it had been rent asunder. He, at least, didn’t say anything to draw her further ire, beyond a single snarky remark that actually made her smile a little.

”That’s right,” she told him, wiping her eyes. ”I’m a brick, and this world is a window. One day I’m going to destroy it all, just you wait.” By now her spell on Marduk would have worn off, leaving him free to flap his jaw to the gathered reporters. Lavinia herself didn’t join in; she’d had more than enough of dealing with imbeciles today. Shying away from the old man’s touch, she shuffled around to Zenith’s far side, pretending to be busily focused on helping him recover. With any luck, that’d keep Asher from coming after her with a sword…

Holly remained atop the dragon's head for a bit longer as the citizens began to push in to question the mages. A fair amount came toward her due to the way that she was acting, and so she began to answer their questions, which were thrown at her with speed. If anyone could cast spells as fast as the people asked their questions, they would probably be very highly ranked. As it was, she was bombarded with questions as to who she was, what her name was, and the way that they were fighting. A few also asked about her relations to other Guild members, as obviously she was one of the strongest just from having stood upon the defeated dragon's head.

The talk about her other Guild members filled her with a little bit of concern, though. Holly slowly turned her head, looking upon the state that her fellow Guildmates were in. When she spotted Zenith, she paused for a few moments. One of the problems with being the current face of the guild was that with everyone pummelling her with questions, she couldn't walk off to help her Guildmates - not that she had anything to really help them with, but she wanted to do something. She wanted to be in the place of Lavinia, beside Zenith, helping to treat him... And treating other Guildmates too, of course, of course!

Holly quickly snapped out of her thoughts, quickly bringing her gaze away from Zenith and focused back on the crowd, trying to take the state of Zenith - of the Guild - out of her mind to focus on pleasing the public. The dragon was still disintegrating, and she didn't want to end up falling, she hopped down from atop it's head and in front of the small crowd - a move that seemed to please them, they all wanted to see the armoured mage right on front of them.

Very quickly, Holly became very bored with their questions. "If you'll excuse me, I do need to check on my Guildmates," she says, slowly making her way through the crowd, and toward Zenith and Lavinia. Once she arrived beside them, she crouched down beside Zenith, ignoring the eyes of the crowd that were still on her. "You okay, Zen?" She asks, quietly. She didn't like the state that he was in. She wished to knew more she could do than just talk. She didn't look at Lavinia, though; Holly was a little afraid she would say or do something drastic. She had spotted Lavinia's poor usage of her magic a few moments ago, but she was more thankful that she was doing something to help Zenith than she was upset enough to complain.